calvarez's Profile
Sozai
Oyaji! I haven't eaten at Sozai, but after Oyaji, I found O Izakaya to be downright embarrassingly bad. The wait time can be atrocious and it's loud inside and if you're there late the owner will be very drunk and rowdy, but the pork belly, the duck meatballs, the kani croquette things... amazing.
New: Great authentic Beijing cuisine in San Francisco
They may have enjoyed a little celebrity-powered boost recently:
http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/8sTqr9ehaZuqORQCddYeUg?select=9FVQ8eXtSDZicBMeuxUQEw
Best fresh tortillas in the Mission?
Poc Chuc gets their tortillas from La Palma, actually.
Mission Yucatan and Peruvian decision making....
I think we've tried everything on the menu at Poc Chuc and it is ALL amazing.
Were disappointed with La Oaxaquena. Aside from the banana-leaf-wrapped tamale (which was v good and v distinctive), everything else tasted like average taqueria fare. Cheap, I guess, but not a destination.
Looking for kickass Szechuan food
Update: After going back recently, I'm going to have to un-recommend Classic Sichuan Restaurant. It's definitely above-average for "Chinese food", but not for Szechuan. They rely too heavily on basic red pepper flakes instead of Szechuan peppercorns - so the effect is quite spicy but not the distinctive mala flavor.
Best Pizza Place for Birthday
I'm going to dissent against Tommaso's. My memory of them from years-ago was quite good, but we re-visited it about a month ago and it was embarrassingly mediocre.
Tasteless, gummy cheese, sauce that tasted fresh from the jar, and too much garlic (and that's tough to make something too garlicky for me!)
Adesso - Oakland
Went last night and yes, it was packed; and yes, it was incredibly loud. We shared our table with a trio of drinkers who seemed oblivious to the food (as they were paying their tab, they were discussing going to Barney's for a burger - the horror!)
Had the pate misti, the boar salumi, the marche salumi, the umbrian salumi, the arancini, the proscuitto and mozzarella di bufala piadina, and the polpettone panini. Everything was AMAZING - best of their kind we've had outside of Italy.
Totally worth the noise (with food like that, who needs to talk?) I'm almost bummed about the free food - we were hoping that an early Tuesday evening might be emptier/quieter. :)
Looking for kickass Szechuan food
We really liked the shui ju yu and the cumin lamb. We also got a noodle and greens dish - I was expecting equal parts noodle and bok choy, but it was almost entirely noodles with just little tiny shreds of seaweed-like greens - can't remember the name, but it was excellent.
Looking for kickass Szechuan food
Oops, meant Yunnan. But they do have a "Hunan smoked pork" dish on the menu which is the best incarnation of that I've ever had.
Berkeley Indian restaurants
Haven't been in about a year, but last time I tried it I really liked Priya (Berkeley, on San Pablo).
Their food is much lighter-tasting than the average Indian fare while still retaining an authentic flair (if a Bangalore restaurant tried to make California Indian cuisine, they might end up with something like Priya). They offer both North and South Indian dishes. The South Indian dishes can't compete with Saravannaa Bhavan/Tabla Flavors but are better than Udupi.
Looking for kickass Szechuan food
I might put Classic Sichuan Restaurant (in Millbrae right near the BART) above China Village.
Z & Y is good, but I think their Hunan dishes are stronger than their Szechuan dishes.
Also LOVE The Noodle Shop in San Mateo but they are Hunan, not Szechuan.
banh mi in the Financial District
Funny... I saw this subject line and immediately thought "I need to post about the Latte Express if they haven't mentioned it already!"
Their #4 sandwich is one of my favorite cheap lunches. (Don't bother with the Royal King cafe a little farther down Kearny - their banh mi are comparatively a huge disappointment.)
Help with proposed itinerary--looking for casual restos.
Toronado definitely lets you bring in the Rosamunde's sausages - in fact, you can order, go next door, and Rosamunde's will bang on the wall to let you know your order's up.
Definitely recommend Fish. although I think of it more as a lunch place than dinner.
Richmond - The fresh garbanzo bean truck
At this time of year, Parkside Farmer's Market (which is not really a farmer's market but is excellent) on Taraval at 16th-ish always has fresh garbanzo beans and/or fresh fava beans.
Best Italian in North Beach for a group of 6???
I'm a fan of Panta Rei - it looks suspiciously slick from outside, but their game+pasta dishes (cinghiale, duck sugo) are the best I've had in the bay area. OpenTable-able too.
Best cookies in the Bay Area?
If you want macarons, I recommend Pamplemousse in RWC.
Lunch spots around the Embarcadero (other than Ferry Building)?
It's worth the 10 minute walk up to Golden Boy (Grant/Green) for the excellent Sicilian slices.
A Dissenting Opinion on Manresa
You're not the only one. My husband and I went a couple years ago and it was, hands down, the worst "high-end" dining experience we've ever had. The tasting menu was dull and repetitive (2 indistinguishable fish courses with mystery sauce) and the wine pairing was so bad (wines that clashed with the food, were oddly sweet) that we told them to stop bringing it.
I remember that not every dish was bad, but whatever was good has been wiped out by my overall extremely disappointing experience.
Best Italian in San Francisco?
L'Osteria del Forno, perhaps? I had a deeply mediocre experience there once, but many 'hounds have given it high praise. (I'd also put the Macaronis into the deeply mediocre category.)
Panta Rei and Perbacco get my vote for best SF Italian options, but neither of them are very small.
Cal Academy: The Moss Room
The desserts at Moss Room were very good. And it is a beautifully-decorated restaurant. That's where my positive remarks end.
"Sustainable" doesn't have to feel like sacrifice, but our meal certainly did. We practically had to trip the waiter to get some bread (not warm, no butter). Then my fish dish came out - all beige, bland looking and tasting. A sprinkling of heirloom tomatoes or fresh herbs would've made it look and taste twice as good. My husband got the pasta with duck sugo - dry, undersalted, and ungarnished. If that's Keller's "A" game, it's time for her to leave the field.
Please rate my eating itinerary!
Bong Su is OK, but I wouldn't confuse it with actual Vietnamese food. It's quite fusion-y and lacks the strong tart! spicy! herby! characteristics that differentiate Vietnamese from other Asian cuisines. If you're okay with fusion-y, I'd actually recommend Ana Mandara instead - nicer atmosphere and near the godforsaken Wharf. But I'd probably brave the Tenderloin and go to Pagolac instead. Mmmm, beef 7 ways.
Southern Cafe vs famerbrown
10 minutes waiting to get a menu.
Another 10 minutes before we could place our order.
A full hour of sitting, waiting, and watching orders come out of the kitchen at the pace of about one table every ten minutes. They must have literally been prepping one meal at a time, end to end.
We had to give up and cancel our order as we had concert tickets - I thought allowing 2 hours for dinner would suffice, but apparently not here.
Rihab's Bakery update
Continued thumbs-up. I work in this neighborhood and there's a shortage of options for tasty, cheap, and vegetarian (and I work with enough Indian software folks that the latter is a critical component).
Went with a couple of visiting colleagues from India and we got:
- 2 orders dolmas
- 1 order baba ghanoush
- 1 "zato's special" pizza with mint and feta
- 1 grilled veggie pizza
- 1 chicken shawarma sandwich
- 1 falafel sandwich
Had a fun time trying to remember the Indian equivalent names to all of our vegetables (eggplant = brinjal, zucchini = courgette, chickpea = channa, etc.) so I could explain what they were ordering.
and somehow all of this food only came to $33? Crazy. I tasted everything and it was all very good, AND I have two bags of leftovers.
Really quick West Portal meal?
Bufala is hit or miss on speed, if you do go, the cornmeal crust pizza is the best option IMHO. Bullshead is my Bay Area favorite for burgers - go easy on the toppings to let the meat flavor shine.
WP's not a great foodie neighborhood in the scheme of things, but if you come back with a little more time, try Roti for very good creative Indian food. It's Americanized, but not in the normal bad (blanded-down) way.
Chinese-ish bride going mad seeking moderately priced Chinese banquet in SF for reception.
I had my wedding reception at South Sea Seafood Village 3 years ago and it was wonderful - they will reserve either the top level only, or bottom level only, or whole restaurant. The reservations are based on price minimums (i.e. spend $X minimum to reserve top, bottom, or whole restaurant) We reserved the bottom only for our 120-person wedding and it was just perfect - I guess there were other diners who ate upstairs but we honestly didn't notice them at all.
SSSV is already beautifully decorated red and gold with the giant double happiness character on the stage, so you really don't need to do any venue setup unless you feel the need to use centerpieces. They were very flexible on crafting the right banquet to meet tradition and price tradeoffs, as well as creating separate 5-course dinners for our half-dozen or so vegetarian guests! They charged $5/table for unlimited corkage (may have gone up since then) and were OK with us bringing in any type of alcohol.
Most importantly, it met the approval of all the Chinese relatives. :)
Rainbow Pizza
Went to Rainbow yesterday with a friend and had pizza and (on the recommendation of the unwashed masses at Yelp, the calamari). The calamari was decidedly mediocre and to be skipped. The pizza - well. I'd definitely say it was above-average, but I went in with high expectations that it didn't really live up to.
What it does well: It's a tasty pizza. Cheesy, oozy, comforting. Very generous with the toppings and the crust can handle them without getting soggy. Aside from the cheese, no visible grease. Good value for the money and lots of variety.
Where it's a little mediocre: The dough can't quite decide what it wants to be - it's neither toothsomely chewy, nor is it the classic sour tang/blistered bottom. It's a thick crust, but a little tough and not quite seasoned enough. I suspect that's because most of the pizza offerings LOAD on the salted meats (we ordered vegetarian options), but I really prefer the dough to be able to stand on its own, flavor-wise. Also, they had Kalamata olives listed as an available topping, so I assumed that's what we would get on our pizza. But no -- whole, straight from the can tinny-flavored California black olives that I had to pick off.
All in all, I'd probably pick Windy City over Rainbow for a thick crust mid-Peninsula pizza option, but I'll probably return to try the Greek side of the menu.
Bushi-tei, a report
If they still have the sparkling nigori sake on the menu, I strongly recommend opting for that. It's lovely, like a creamy, sparkly and not too sweet Asian pear.
25th & Clement
Panda Country Kitchen is very good, btw. I was thinking it would be your standard Cantonese generic cheap fare (a la Best Panda farther out in the avenues), but it's Szechuan and very good and very reasonably priced. Better than nearby SPICES, IMHO.
Die, die must try Sunnyvale - Milpitas area
Both of those restaurants, as well as Komala Vilas, are recommended by my Indian-from-India coworkers, and the food tastes like food you would get *in India*. But I think SB is a head and shoulder above in flavor. More refined use of spices and softer, fresher breads. My husband makes any excuse to run errands in the South Bay just so he can turn that into a meal at Saravana Bhavan.
